Mesut Ozil: Came for Wenger but fell in love with Arsenal

Mesut Ozil has revealed that he decided to stay at Arsenal because he loves London and is really happy at the club.

The King of Assists was speaking to Arsenal.com recently about why he opted to sign a new deal with the club and I have to admit, when I first opened the article I expected to see him talking about Arsene Wenger. (It’s worth noting that Arsenal date the Ozil interview as 7th March yet they only published it on 13th. I guess they were waiting for us to win some games.)

Mesut Ozil is another who has made no secret of his Wenger admiration and the role the Frenchman played in his signing from Real Madrid in 2013.

“It feels really good,” he told Arsenal Player. “I’m really happy to sign here for such a big club like Arsenal. I’ve always said to the club that i’m happy here and now I’ve signed, I’m really happy.

“My team-mates and family have always supported me. I have a lot of goals here with the team, I want to reach those and I’m really happy.

“I love the city. Before I signed the contract, I spoke with my family about what the best decision was for me. At the end of the day, it was really easy for me to say ‘yes’ to the club. I’m here for more years and I hope we will win some titles with the team. I believe in that.”

As you can see, no mention of the manager at all there.

There is, most likely, nothing to read into this situation but it is notable that last season the players were queuing up to talk about how much they still had Wenger’s back while they are considerably quieter this year.

When he signed his new deal with the club, Bild speculated that there were two main reasons for this.

Firstly, the player was convinced the club were serious about challenging for major trophies after signing Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January.